


i'm sick of loosing soulmates (so where do we begin?)

by galactic_cam



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Gen, Genderbent Peter Parker - Freeform, Genius Peter Parker, Lots of words, Not Beta Read, Not Captain America: Civil War (Movie) Compliant, Parent Tony Stark, Penny Parker - Freeform, Peter Parker is a Good Bro, Platonic Relationships, Platonic Soulmates, Soulmates, Soulmates can hear eachother's voices, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Has A Heart, We Die Like Men, it's loosely compliant but isn't really
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-13
Updated: 2020-07-13
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:54:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,144
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25231957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/galactic_cam/pseuds/galactic_cam
Summary: Everyone has two voices in their heads. One is your own, and the other belongs to your soulmate. It’s not their thoughts, just their personality, a bit of a hint at who they are, how they feel.Tony Stark only ever had one voice in his head. Until he didn't.Penny Parker never had a single day without two voices.Tony knew his soulmate was young. She was a girl, born in august of 2001. Penny knew her soulmate was a lot older, enough that his voice had dropped and he drank. A lot.This is how they find each other.Loosely follows the events of Captain America: Civil War.This is a platonic soulmate AU, st*rkers get out you are not welcome here.
Relationships: May Parker (Spider-Man) & Peter Parker, May Parker (Spider-Man) & Peter Parker & Tony Stark, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Comments: 19
Kudos: 301
Collections: The Best Female Peter Parker Fics, The Best Irondad/Spiderson Fics, The Best Peter Parker Whump Fics, The Best of the Best MCU Fics, The Friendly Neighborhood Exchange, Tony Stark and Peter Parker being platonic soulmates.





	1. don't know where I would be

**Author's Note:**

  * For [technically_a_little_dragon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/technically_a_little_dragon/gifts).



> Work and chapter titles are from Sick of Loosing Soulmates by Dodie, if you want to check it out. 
> 
> Thank you to the Friendly Neighborhood Exchange for setting this up, and to @technically_a_little_dragon for the wonderful prompts to write! I hope you enjoy!

Everyone has two voices in their heads. One is your own, and the other belongs to your soulmate. It’s not their thoughts, just their personality, a bit of a hint at who they are, how they feel.

Tony Stark had only ever had one voice in his head. For the first few years of his life, he was reassured that lots of people’s soulmates were younger than them, and that he would get a voice in his head eventually. But by the time he was eleven, those reassurances stopped. Soulmates were very rarely outside of the 10 year age gap, even if they were platonic. Tony simply didn’t have a soulmate. 

————

Penny Parker had never had a day without two voices in her head. She could swear that the voice was familiar, one that she knew, but she could never place where it was from. She knew her soulmate was much older, since for most of her life the voice slurred in her head. He was sarcastic and sharp, and even when drunk enough that it came across in her head he was smart and kinder than he seemed. She knew that when she was 7, he had been scared. Really scared. For about three months, the voice in her head had been in constant terror. Then when she was 9, the voice had been sick and afraid leading up to and during the Stark Expo, which had ended in disaster. When she was 11, for the day leading up to and the day of the battle of New York, her soulmate’s voice had been stressed. Then terrified. Then when she was 14, and had just been bitten by a spider, the voice had been anxious and sad, which wasn’t new, but it was so heightened. It really was a wonder how she hadn’t put two and two together.

————

Tony’s second voice appeared in August of 2001. He barely noticed at first, as drunk as he constantly was, but when he did, he was completely shocked. A girl. A baby girl was his soulmate. He tried his best to drink less after that, since he didn’t really want his soulmate’s whole idea of him being that he was a drunk. He knew that she was smart, almost as smart as him, but without the proper tools, she was stuck bored in classes intended for most kids her age. He knew that something had happened to her in 2005, when she would have been four, as the child’s voice had been sad and confused for weeks. Something bad had happened again in 2012, before the Battle of New York, and she had been scared. About 6 months before the Sokovia Accords were introduced, she had been sick for a week, and almost immediately afterward she became sad and guilty, and then randomly filled with energy. He briefly wondered what had happened to her, but he had been so caught up in Sokovia and in the Accords and figuring out who the new spider-themed vigilante was that he didn’t have time to give it any more thought. 

When he found out who the Spider-Girl was, one 14-year-old Penelope Parker, and almost immediately picked up and went to the Parker’s apartment. He knocked, and the door swung open to reveal May Parker. Recently widowed. Penelope’s aunt. Penelope’s parents had died when she was 4. Plane crash.

“Umm. You’re Tony Stark?” Her shock was very apparent on her face.

“That I am, Mrs. Parker.” 

She cut him off. “Please, call me May.”

“Alright, May, may I come in? I have something I need to discuss with you in regards to your niece.” 

She opened the door a bit wider, waving him in. “Make yourself at home! My walnut date loaf was just coming out of the oven. Would you like some? Or anything to drink?”

“I’ll have some of the date loaf, thank you very much.” He sat down carefully on the edge of the couch, making sure not to jostle any of his bruised ribs. May sat herself down next to him.

“So, Mr. Stark, what did you want to talk to me about? You said it was something to do with Penny?”

“Please, call me Tony. Yes, she, uh, she applied for a grant from the September Foundation. It looked really good, and I’m here to offer her an internship.” His soulmate’s voice had just gotten interested in something.

“She didn’t tell me she was applying for anything.” May furrowed her brow. 

“Well, it’s a very competitive program. Maybe she didn’t want to get your hopes up?”

“Yes, that must be it.”

Just then, the door swung open.

“Hey May.” He turned to watch Penelope Parker walk into the apartment, and not even notice him. 

“Hey! How was school today?” 

“Okay. There’s this crazy car parked outside -” The girl noticed him, and trailed off. 

“Oh, Ms. Parker!” Tony said, as his soulmate’s voice rapidly went from interested to confused. Maybe a bit afraid?

“What? Oh um. What? Oh, hey, um, I’m, I’m Penny. Penny Parker.”

“Tony.”

“Hey, um, hey, what are you doing here?”

“I figured it’s about time we met. You’ve been getting my emails, right?” He hoped that she’d go along with the script he was feeding her, considering her grades. She did. 

“Yeah, yeah, regarding the -” Penny started, but May cut her off. 

“You didn’t even tell me about the grant!”

“Yeah, the grant.”

“The September Foundation.” He gave her a bit more to go off of. “Right, yeah, remember when you applied?”

“Yeah?”

“Well, I approved! So now, we’re in business.”

“You didn’t tell me anything, so what’s up with that? What are we, keeping secrets now?” May sounded genuinely hurt.

“Well, I just, I just know how much you love... surprises? So I thought I’d let you know, what. So, anyways, what did I apply for, exactly?”

————

In conclusion, Tony Stark was weird in person. Without his perfectly manicured TV persona up, he was sharp and witty and a bit sarcastic. It was a good weird, and it felt so familiar, somehow, but Penny wasn’t exactly sure why. She’d never met him, save for the three seconds back at the Stark Expo when he had saved her from the hammer drones. 

At the same time, her soulmate’s voice was satisfied and pleased. He had clearly just done something that made him happy. She was glad - he’d been very stressed lately. He deserved something good to happen. She still wanted to know who he was.

Now, though, she was going to Germany. To steal Captain America’s shield. Which was a super weird thing to think about. She’d better start packing - Mr. Stark’s assistant/chauffeur/head of security was picking her up after school tomorrow, so she’d need to be packed for then. She was going to Germany!


	2. if you hadn't found me

Tony’s soulmate was happy. Something had clearly just happened to make her very excited, and now her voice in his head would. Not. Shut. Up. 

He was a bit too preoccupied with getting to Germany to think too much about her. If he had, maybe he would have noticed why Penny Parker was so ridiculously familiar. But he was busy, and she was getting on his nerves, so he tried to tune her voice out. 

All day on Friday his soulmate’s voice was filled with anticipation and excitement. The girl probably had a party this weekend that she was looking forward to. He was sure that his voice in her head was significantly less ecstatic. It was a wonder she was in such a good mood given how gloomy his voice must be, and if she heard him as well as he heard her, well, let’s just say that his voice’s thoughts must not be very nice to be stuck with. And yet, all day long, she’s happy and excited. He’s in Germany, having flown out almost immediately after meeting Penny, so he ends up on the phone with Happy in the middle of the night as he and Penny are in the air.

“Tony. This girl will not shut up.” Happy opens with. Tony has to stifle a laugh. If only Happy knew his soulmate. 

“Sorry, Hap, but she’s your responsibility. Besides - now you know what it’s like to live with my soulmate, who, if I ever meet, will probably be around Penny’s age and just as excitable.”

Happy is silent for a good 10 seconds. “Tony, do you know how old your soulmate is? When you first started hearing her?” 

“Sometime mid, early august of 2001, I’d say, why?”

“Did it occur to you that Penny’s birthday is August 10th?”

“Why do you know that? Never mind, Hogan, what are you saying?”

“Is Penny your soulmate?”

Tony stills for a moment. He’s heard about the ‘moment,’ when you realise that your soulmate is, indeed, your soulmate, when everything goes still and quiet and a sense of serenity descends over you for a few seconds, but he’d never believed it was actually a thing, you know? One of those things that people exaggerate. Well, he sure believed it now.

“Tony?”

“Yeah, Happy, I think she is.” His mind starts racing. Her parents died in 2005. She was four, and she was sad and confused. Her uncle, right after she was bitten, about 6 months ago, when she was sick and guilty. Something in 2012, that didn’t come up on her records. Oh well, he’d find out eventually, he’s sure. She’s his soulmate. Penny Parker, Spider-Girl, is his soulmate. Holy fuck.

————

Happy had gone to the bathroom about 3 minutes ago, and she knew he was on the phone in there, but she wasn’t particularly trying to listen. The bathroom was a good way off in the massive (massive!) private (private!) jet (jet!) and the whirr of the jets was so loud that she could barely hear over them anyways. Her soulmate’s voice had been moaning and groaning all day, and very suddenly, about 2 minutes into Happy’s ‘bathroom break’ he'd gone quiet, and she’d felt a sense of peace for a few seconds before it had faded. If the stories were true, then that means that her soulmate had realized that she was their soulmate. But who was her soulmate? Who did she know who would have just realized they were her soulmate? She couldn't figure it out. Oh, well, she was halfway across the world, so she guessed she shouldn’t worry about it.

Happy came out of the bathroom, and he seemed a bit… cautious? In regards to her, in particular. He was being a bit nicer, when before he had been cold and disgruntled. 

“Hey, Happy, how long do we have until we land?” She asked. The past few times, he’d responded with a gruff ‘soon,’ but this time,

“In about an hour. Tony’s meeting us at the airport, driving us back to the hotel. Gotta rest you up for tomorrow.”

That was… definitely a surprise. One, that she got an actual answer, one that seemed… genuine, and two that Tony was meeting them to drive them to the airport. What was that about? Surely the man had better things to be doing than driving them from the airport to the hotel.

————

Tony wrung his hands behind his back as he waited at the (completely empty) airport for Penny’s plane to land. Well, it was technically his plane, but if she wanted it, she could have it. He would give her anything - he had waited so long, wished for his soulmate for so long, and now she was finally here. He wasn’t sure what he was going to say. Was he even going to tell her? He’d read on an online forum on his way here that telling your soulmate before they found out on their own could be detrimental to your relationship. No. He would just act more like himself than he ever has, and hope she’d put two and two together in her head. Maybe he’d outwardly express some emotions. Yeah, that should do it! And then

“Hey, Mr Stark!” The girl herself came around the corner before stopping abruptly and giving him a small wave. Her voice in his head chattered nervously, and he gave her a grin. 

“Hey, kid.”

“Why’d you come and pick us up at the airport? Don’t you have better things to be doing?”

“I decided to skip my, ah, ‘more important things,’ for sake of riding with you back to the hotel. Happy, the car’s out back. Let’s go.”

As they walked out to the car, Tony swung an arm over Penny’s shoulder.

“So, Penelope. Anything of interest going on in Penny world?”

“Not really, Mr. Stark! This is the most exciting thing, for sure.”

Tony hummed in response. “Hmm. Well, kid, tell me about yourself? Who is Penny Parker; vigilante extraordinaire, top of her class, academic decathlon champ?”

She blushed. “Well, I wouldn’t say top of my class -”

He cut her off. “No, you are, I looked.”

“Oh.” She seemed surprised, almost like she hadn’t been expecting it. “Well. What do you want to know?”

“I don’t know. Here, how about… what’s the weirdest thing that’s happened to you in the past week. Apart from me showing up at your house and flying you to Germany, I mean.”

“Well, on the plane just now, actually, was when it happened! I suddenly got this feeling of immense calm and peace rush over me, and my  _ very _ talkative soulmate was super quiet while it lasted. I’m not sure what that was about!”

Well. There it was. “Your soulmate? Do you know who they are?”

“No, but I think that they know who I am.”

“Sounds like it.”

“Mr Stark, I remember reading somewhere that you don’t have a soulmate?”

He paused. “When’s that interview from?”

“1998? 1999? Around then,” Penny responded.

“My soulmate appeared in 2001.”

“Really? That’s a big gap!”

He hummed. “How about you? When did your soulmate appear?” Tony knew what she was going to say.

“He’s been around as long as I can remember. I’m actually pretty sure I have a big age gap too, because he was drunk a lot for the first 7 years of my life? So either he was at least 21, or he was a child drunk. He’s stopped now, though, which is good.”

“That  _ is _ good.” They arrived at the car. He opened the door for Penny, and walked around to the other side. “Hogan, you drive.”

————

Penny was seated in the back of a very, very luxurious car. And next to her was Tony Stark himself. He’d been really chatty on the way to the car, asking her about her soulmate, and for a few minutes he’d almost sounded like the voice that chattered in her head alongside her own. Now that she thought about it, his voice was almost the exact same as her soulmate’s, too. But it couldn’t be. No way Tony Stark was her soulmate.

————

Penny realized in the middle of the battle. When things first started to go to absolute shit, her soulmate’s rapid descent into near panic almost perfectly matched her own, and the events that she could see before her eyes. And she noticed him, too, when she realized for certain. He had stilled, a look of serenity passing over his face for a split second, and he had glanced at her. And then James Rhodes had been shot out of the sky, and she hadn’t seen him since. 


	3. sitting all alone in the dark

Now, she was lying in her hotel room. It was around 9pm, but she was really tired. But just as she had been drifting off, Tony Stark had decided that he was going somewhere. Well, that’s what she guessed. He was muttering and slightly afraid, and now she was wide awake and pretty worried. 

Slipping on the suit, she pushed open the window to her room and slid into Germany’s cool night air. Slowly creeping along the side of the building, she climbed to the top. Just as she reached it, a quinjet flew directly over her head, low enough that she could have reached it on a standard ladder. On instinct, she shot a web at the bottom. It stuck, and she was tugged off the roof, the quinjet taking her soaring over Germany. She pulled herself up, getting her hands and feet in contact with the jet, and scrambled to the top, keeping herself pressed as close to the jet as she could muster.

The quinjet stayed low, which was good because she probably would have passed out if it hadn’t. It flew for a while - probably over 4 hours, but she didn’t have a watch. When they finally landed, it was a  _ lot _ colder. She wasn’t sure where they were, but there was a lot of snow. She watched as Tony got off the plane, and walked towards a large, snow-covered building. Bunker? It could probably be called a bunker. 

Just then, another quinjet flew down, and none other than Captain America and his friend with the cool arm got off. The three spoke for a moment, before all heading inside together. The doorway was sliding shut quickly, but Penny was quicker, and she slid in as the door clicked shut behind her. She saw light and heard indiscriminate muttering up ahead, and like any sane person would do when their soulmate was right there and  _ scared, _ she inched her way towards it.

She didn’t want to be seen - she didn’t know what they’d say, and she  _ knew _ they’d be mad, so she stayed out of sight, inching along the ceiling in places. Because she was keeping her distance, she couldn’t really hear what they were saying. But Penny was a superhero, and she knew what a fight sounded like.

And then Captain America and Cool-Arm-Man left the room she had followed them too. Tony Stark was groaning and fading fast in her ear. She watched the Captain & walk out from where she was tucked into a corner above the doorway.

And Mr. Stark wasn’t with them.

Once they had turned the corner and gotten out of sight, Penny dropped to the ground and inched her way into the room. When she saw the Iron Man suit, though, she picked up the pace.

She dropped to the ground beside him, and shook him, trying not to panic. “Mr. Stark? Mr. Stark?”

The mask slid open. “Penny? What -” he coughed, spitting out a bit of bloody saliva to the side. “What are you doing here? How’d you -” He coughed again, eyes fluttering shut for a moment. “How’d you get here?” 

His voice in her head was slow and rapidly fading. “I grabbed onto the plane and didn’t let go. Is there someone I can call?”

————

During the fight, when Steve smashed his shield into his chest, Penny’s voice in his head was frantic. It was frantic now, too, and she was standing over him. Sitting? Was he lying down?

He knew he said something, and that she was now talking, but he couldn’t understand what she was saying. It was like they were underwater - how did they get underwater?

He had the sensation of being lifted and carried, and he knew he was moving. He just didn’t understand how, as he certainly wasn’t moving himself. He slipped farther and farther down, his soulmate’s frantic speaking slowly floating away into nothing.

————

Penny carried him all the way from the inner area of the bunker back out across to the quinjet. It was pretty hard, and that's saying a lot for the girl who had stopped a bus moving 60 miles an hour with her bare hands.

But Tony Stark was not a light man, and his completely solid metal suit was pretty heavy too. And a dead weight 1000-pound metal body was pretty hard to maneuver. 

He blacked out completely about halfway back to the quinjet.

When she got to the bottom of the quinjet, she paused. How was she supposed to get him inside? But before she could properly worry, a loading ramp sank down in front of her, and she dragged him up and into the body of the jet. The ramp closed behind her.

“Hello, Penny.” A female voice said from above.

She jumped, almost dropping the man she had in her arms. “Hello? Who’s there?”

“I am FRIDAY, boss’s personal assistant. Do not be alarmed. I am an artificial intelligence. In his current state, I recommend bringing him to the med bay of the quinjet. He is not in critical condition, so do not worry. Follow the on lights to get there.”

Penny nodded, and then realized that the AI probably couldn’t see her. It was a relief that he wasn’t critical - she definitely didn’t think her ‘I give myself bad stitches after patrol’ medical knowledge was going to cut it if he wasn’t. “Alright. FRIDAY? Can you lead the way?.” She hoisted Tony up, and began working her way along the hallways. As she walked, FRIDAY began to speak some more.

“I have additionally notified Ms. Potts, who will be organizing a medbay for him back at the Avengers compound. She has also been notified of your status as soulmates, and will be expecting your presence.”

Well, there it was. Her confirmation on what she suspected and was absolutely positive of. “Does he know?”

“Boss is fully aware of this fact. You have now reached the medbay. As well, I have accessed Boss’s suit and disengaged it.” Mr. Stark’s suit fell away, and wow, he was so much lighter.

“Okay, what do I do now?”

“Place him on the bed to your left and hook up the ECG and heart rate machine. Then you are going to need to place an IV.”

She was going to have to do  _ what? _ Well, that was certainly going to not go well.

“I will walk you through the placement of all of the machinery.”

Oh. Good. A walkthrough on how to place an IV from an AI. That would  _ certainly _ make her a medical professional. 

————

When Tony woke up, he woke up slowly, like surfacing after a long dive. Sounds came into focus a few at a time, and one of the last ones that he heard was long, slow breathing that absolutely was not coming from him. He blinked awake, and with no small amount of effort, twisted his head to where the breathing was coming from. 

It was Penny. She was sound asleep, her phone in one hand and a book spread open on her lap. 

“Penny?” he found himself saying, and she startled awake. 

“Mr. Stark! Are you alright? I’m sorry I completely hitched a ride on the top of your jet and followed you to wherever we were -”

He cut her off. “Penny, it’s fine. I probably would be dead if you hadn’t, so thanks.”

They were both silent for a minute. 

“Hey, I know -”

“Did you -”

They both started speaking at the same time. With a gargantuan amount of effort, Tony waved her on. “You first.”

“No, no, Mr. Stark, you can go!”

“Alright, but you need to call me Tony.” He took a deep breath, closed his eyes for a split second, and said “Did you know we’re soulmates?”

She paused, and said “Yes. But it’s totally fine Mr. Stark! You don’t have to spend time with me. I know I’m just a kid from Queens and -”

“It’s Tony, kid, and what are you talking about? You’re my soulmate. Of course I want to spend time with you!”

“But -”

“Kid, c’mere.” He patted the bed beside him. Hesitantly, she stood up, made her way over and carefully sat on the bed beside him. He reached up and pulled her down into a hug.

“Oh. This is nice.”

Tony hummed, and casually brought a hand up to her head and began combing through her shoulder-length curls.

Slowly, he slid from consciousness. There was no second voice in his head, but it was okay. Instead, his kid was right there in his arms, and she wasn’t going anywhere.


	4. what a strange being you are [bonus chapter!]

This was definitely a weird day. It started with her realizing Mr. Stark - Tony? - was her _soulmate_ , and then following him to Siberia from Germany by hitching a ride on his quinjet, where she had then dragged him out of an abandoned hydra bunker, flown the quinjet back to the avengers compound, and met _the_ Pepper Potts.

Now, though, Tony was back asleep and she was lying on top of him. Her paternal soulmate that she had finally met. His hands were in her hair and she didn’t want to disturb him, so there she lay in Tony fucking Stark’s arms. Tony Fucking Stark, her soulmate. 

_Well,_ she figured, _I’ve had a long day too. And this position isn’t half bad for a nap._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to the friendly neighborhood exchange for setting this up! and thanks again to @technically_a_little_dragon for the prompts, it was a really fun story to write! This is actually the longest thing I have ever written (the previous best was 934, so i'm pretty impressed with this ngl). I really hope you enjoyed!


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